Traveling-grate furnace



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3.1100113. TRAVELING GRATE FURNACE.

No. 510,568. Patented Dec. 12,1893.

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TRAVELING GRATE FURNACE. N o. -51.Q,56i8. Patented Dec. 12, 1893.

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B4B. 00KB. TRAVELING GRATE PURNAGE. No. 510,568. PatentedDec. 12, 1893;

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TRAVELlNG-GRATE FURNACE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 510,568, dated December 12, 1893.

Application filed May 23, 1893- Serial No. 475,222. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EOKLEY B. Come, a citizen of the United States, residing at Drifton, in the county of Luzerne and State of Pennsyl- Vania, have invented certainnew and useful Improvements in Traveling-Grate Furnaces, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to traveling grate furnaces; the object being to provide means for controlling the air-supply and the leakages thereof, and for clearing the grate of accumulations of ash and cinder.

My present invention is in the nature of an improvement on the traveling-grate furnace described and claimed in Letters Patent of the United States No. 499,716, granted to me June 20, 1893.

In the drawings accompanying and forming a part of this specification, Figure 1 is a sectional side elevation of a furnace embodying my present invention. Fig.2 is a vertical section, taken on the linec c, Fig. 1, showing the parts at the left hand of said line, as seen from a point at the right hand thereof. Fig. 3 is a sectional plan View, taken on the line d d, showing the parts below said line, as seen from a position above the same.

Similar characters designate like parts in all the figures.

For illustrating the application and utility of my present improvements, I have shown the same applied to the furnace described in my aforesaid Letters Patent No. 499,716, and have shown the furnace arranged for the heating of a steam-boiler B, which may be of any Well-known type but is herein represented of an ordinary cylindrical form.

The furnace comprises the usual inclosingwalls at the sides thereof; and the boiler B, over the furnace-chamber O, is shown covered by brick-work in a well-known manner.

The side-walls of the furnace are designated by2 and 2', respectively; and said furnace-chamber O is shown covered in part by the forward end of the boiler B, but is covered principally by the reverberatory arch A, which, as shown best in Fig. 1, is set at some inclination, the front or right-hand end thereof being set lowest for facilitating the natural backward flow of the furnace-gases over the mass of fuel 22 which is shown spread upon the upper run, 10 of the traveling-grate G. Said traveling-grate is or may be of the same construction as the corresponding furnace-grate described in my aforesaid Letters Patent No. 499,716; It is shown consisting of a number of sections, or grate-bars, 9, pivotally connected together into an endless chain, or chaingrate, which is carried by the forward and rearward sprocket-wheels 12 and 14, respectively, these wheels being fixed upon and carried by the two shafts 13 and 15, respectively. For a more detailed description of the chaingrate, which, however, may be of any suitable and well-known character, reference may be had to my aforesaid Letters Patent No. 499,716. At the forward end of the reverberatory arch, this is shown supported upon the cross-beam, or front-wall, 3; and the furnace-chamber 0 extends from said front-wall to the rearward crosswall 7; from this wall extends rearwardly the'fioor 7' of the flue underneath the boiler 13, said flue-floor 7' being shown supported on the rearward Wall7 of the furnacemechanism chamber.

The fuel-supply is placed at the forward end of the furnace, contiguous to the frontwall of the furnace-chamber and consists, in the form thereof herein shown, of a hopper H, having the usual side-walls 4 and t, frontwall 5, and rearward-wall 6. The lower end, 8, or discharge opening, of the hopper H stands immediately over the upper run 10 of the traveling-grate, being supported upon one of the inclosing-walls of the furnace-mechanism chamber O. The hopper H is shown filled nearly full of fine fuel, as, forinstance, one of the finer sizes of anthracite coal, such as buckwheat or pea, for the burning of which my improved furnace is more especially intended. The traveling-grate or furnacefloor, in passing along underneath the discharge-opening of the hopper H, conducts the fuel therefrom in the form of a layer, 22, which, in practice, is ignited at a point just within the front-wall 3 of the furnace-chamber, and is entirely consumed before reaching the rearward wall 7 of said chamber; the resulting ash and cinder 22' being carried under said rearward furnace-chamber wall and deposited in a pile at 21 in the rearward end or portion of the grate-mechanism chamber 0'.

It will, of course, be understood that, in-

stead of the hopper H, arranged as herein shown, I may use the arrangement of fuelsupply shown and described in my aforesaid Letters Patent No. 499,716,01' the improved arrangement thereof described and claimed in my prior application, Serial No. l72,891, filed May 3, 1893.

As a means for actuating the travelinggrate, power is applied to one of the drivingshafts, in the present instance to the shaft 15, which carries the driving-wheels 14c that. support and engage with the rearward end of the chain-grate, as best shown in Fig. 1. For this purpose, the rearward end of shaft 15, is shown furnished with a worm-wheel, 40, which meshes with a worm a1, fixed on a shaft, 12, that is carried in bearings 13 and 43', on the furnace-structure. Any suitable means, as, for instance, the pulley 44 on said shaft 42, may be employed for imparting a rotary movement to the worm l1, and through this and the gear, shaft and wheels, to the travel ing-grate itself.

Immediately underneath that portion of the traveling grate which forms the floor of the furnace-chamber is placed an air-supply made according to my aforesaid Letters Patent No. 499,716, and consisting, in the preferred form thereof herein shown, of a multiplicity of airboxes, at, b, c, d, which, in practice, may be separately supplied with air through a corresponding series of supply-pipes, a, b, 0, (1', respectively; these pipes are shown connecting with a larger pipe, M, leading to some suitable source of air-supply as, for instance, an air-pump or pressureblower; and each of the air-supply pipes is shown furnished with a regulating valve whose operating handles or levers are herein designated by a, b, c" and (1'', respectively. By means of these regulating-valves, the pressure of the air supplied to the successive portions of the traveling furnace-floor over the chambers a, b, c and (1, respectively, may be varied for gradually reducing the pressure of the air-blast applied to the fuel during the later stages of the combustion thereof, as more fully set forth in my aforesaid Patent-s Nos. 499,715 and 499,716.

It will be understood that, in practice, some leakage of air takes place at each end of the air-supply apparatus, the leakage at the right hand in Fig. 1 passing out between the grate and the flange 16 of the air-box a into the forward portion C of the grate-mechanism chamber; and the leakage at the rearward end, from the lower pressure air-box cl, pass ing out between the grate and the flange 16' of said air-box into the rearward portion 0' of said grate -mechanism chamber. Some leakage also occurs through the mass of fuel on the chain-grate at the extreme forward end of the furnace chamber, (at the right-hand in Fig. 1,) and thence forwardlyand downwardly through the chain-grate into said forward portion 0 of the grate-mechanism chamber. But the forward leakage described I find to be, in practice, much the greatest, owing, presumably, to the higher pressures used in the forward air-boxes a and b, and the very n uch less pressures used in the forward air-box cl. If, therefore, no cut-off be provided between the forward and rearward portions 0 and C of the grate-mechanism chamber,--that being the arrangement shown in my aforesaid Letters Patent No. 499,716, the high-pressure leakage from the forward end of the grate would pass downwardly, and then rearwardly and upwardly to the space 17, between the rear wall 7 of the furnace and the rearward portion of the upper run 10 of the traveling grate, and from thence would pass upward through the extreme rearward end of the furnace-chamber into the flue, and thus be wasted. To overcome this leakage and consequent waste, and by overcoming the same to more fully utilize the entire air-blast for the purpose of burning the fuel, is the principal object of my present invention, which is accomplished as follows: The forward portion 0" of the inclosed grate-mechanism chamber is divided off or separated from the rearward portion 0'' of said chamber by means of a cut-01f device extending across said grate-mechanism chamber at a point in the length thereof intermediate to the forward and rearward ends of the upper run of the traveling-grate; that is to say, at a point, in practice, intermediate between the grate-carrying wheels 12 and 14, respectively. Said cut-off device comprises a transverse wall, which, in the form of the apparatus herein shown consists of the air-box a and a cut-off plate, or depending wall, 18, extending downwardly from said air-box to a point somewhat below the lower sides of said wheels 12 and 14; and an air-seal gratepassage, which together with the described cut-off wall forms a transverse partition completely separating the front portion 0 of the grate-mechanism chamber from the rearward portion 0 thereof. Said air-seal consists in a body of fluid, as 70, held in a suitable tank and rising to a height submerging the lower edge 18' of the cut-off wall 18. Said fluid airseal is contained in a suitably formed tank K, extending across the width of said grate-mech anism chamber and to the lower side thereof. Said tank consists, in the preferred form thereof herein shown, of the bottom-plate 62, the forward-plate 62 and the side-walls 02" and 63"; and the fluid (which, of course, is usually water) should rise, in practice, to about the height shown in the dotted lines in Fig. 1, so as to entirely out off communication between the two portions aforesaid of the grate-mechanism chamber.

For guiding the return-run 10 of the endless traveling grate G through the air-seal passage-way, one end of said return-run, (in this instance the forward end thereof,) is carried downwardly by means of additional sprocket-wheels 12' suitably supported (as, for instance, by means of a shaft, 13 journaled in suitable bearings,) at a point lower down than the wheels 12 and 14, thereby, as

illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2, depressing and submerging said lower run in the fluid airseal, and guiding the same between the bottom of the fluid tank and the cut-0E wall 18. By these means the endless grate is returned to the front of the furnace through a passage-way closed to the air-blast, and is also thoroughly soaked by the water in the airseal tank for a considerable period, for loosening the residue of ash and cinder which, in practice, will adhere to the grate-bars when these pass out at the rear end of the furnacechamber, thereby cleaning the gratebars ready to be again brought into use. bris thus removed from the traveling grate is naturally collected in the lower portion at of the water-tank K, and may be removed from the front of the furnace through the passage at 60 between the front-wall 62' of said tank and the lower edge 66 of the front end-wall 61 of the furnace-mechanism chamber. To provide for this operation, the frontwall 62 is set inclined, thus furnishing a clear space through which to insert a hook or drag for bringing up the sediment out of the bottom portion 0: of the tank.

Having thus described my invention, I claim 1. In a furnace, the combination with the inclosed grate-mechanism chamber and the endless traveling grate located therein, of a cut-0E separating the grate-mechanism (311301-- ber into two parts and having an air-seal passage-way for the lower run of the traveling grate, substantially as described.

2. In a furnace? the combination with the inclosed grate-mechanism chamber, and the endless traveling grate located therein, of a series of air-supply boxes underneath the up per run of the grate and the furnace-chamber, means for varying the pressure of the air in said air-boxes, and a cut-off having an air-seal grate-passage and separating the forward and rearward portions of the gratemechanism chamber, said endless grate returning through said air-seal passage-way, substantially as described.

3. In a furnace, the combination with the endless grate supported for traveling-movement under the furnace-chamber, Walls inclosing the grate-mechanism, an air-supply under the upper run of the grate, a fluid-tank The dthe grate below the furnace-chamber, a fluidtank closing communication between the ends of the grate-chamber, and means for depending the lower run of the chain-grate into the fluid-tank, substantially as described.

5. In a traveling-grate furnace, the combination with the endless grate supported for traveling-movement under the furnace-chamber, walls inclosing the grate-mechanism, an air-supply under the upper run of the grate below the furnace chamber, a fluid -tank, means for depending the lower run of the chain-grate into the fluid-tank, and a cut-off plate between the upper and lower runs of the traveling-grate and depending into the fluid-tank, substantially as described.

6. In a furnace, the combination with the inclosed grate-mechanism chamber, of the traveling grate carried by wheels at the ends of the upper run thereof, an air-supply underneath the upper run of the grate between said grate-carrying wheels, means for bolding down one end of the lower run of the grate, a'fiuid air-seal submerging the lower end of said lower-run of the grate, and a cutoff wall extending from said upper run downwardly therefrom into said fluid, substantially as described.

7. In a traveling-grate furnace, the combination with the inclosed grate-mechanism chamber having an opening, 60, in the endwall thereof, the traveling grate, anda fluidtank inclosing the lower portion of the traveling grate and containing a fluid seal rising to a height submerging the lower edge of said end-wall of the furnace, whereby a sealed passage-way is provided for access to the tankspace below the grate for removal of dbris from the grate, substantially as described.

' EOKLEY B. OOXE.

Witnesses:

ARTHUR MCCLELLAN, LESTER H. ELY. 

